Astrit Dehari

Former Prizren police director Nexhmi Krasniqi admitted during prosecution questioning on Thursday that his claims that the former Vetevendosje activist Astrit Dehari - who died in Prizren prison in 2016 - had used medication before his death, had come from the prison director at the time, Destan Zogaj.

Hundreds of people attended an event on Monday evening in central Pristina to commemorate former Vetevendosje activist Astrit Dehari, who died in custody in November 2016.

Those who attended, including the leader of Vetevendosje, Albin Kurti, lit candles and laid wreaths, while activists painted a commemorative portrait of Dehari on a wall outside the ABC Cinema.

The family of the late Vetevendosje activist Astrit Dehari claim the results of an autopsy conducted by Swiss experts show he was murdered in detention in Prizren in 2016.

Dehari died in the correctional facility in the western Kosovo city after being arrested on suspicion of terrorism for allegedly throwing an explosive device in the parliament.

A Kosovo parliamentary debate on the death of Astrit Dehari, an activist from the Vetevendosje party, was interrupted when a minister from the ruling party said the issue was being "instrumentalised" in the interest of "pro-Russian circles".

The Appeals Court in Pristina on Monday ordered the release of three opposition Vetevendosje party activists, including an MP, who were convicted of throwing a grenade at the parliament building in 2016 and given substantial jail terms.

The court overturned the original verdicts and returned the case to the Basic Court of Pristina for retrial.

The Basic Court in Pristina found four Vetevendosje activists, including an MP, guilty on Friday of firing an explosive device at the Kosovo parliament building on August 4, 2016.

46-year-old detainee Naser Makolli died Monday afternoon while in detention, prompting officials from the radical Vetevendosje party to sound the alarm. Makolli was an important witness in an ongoing investigation into a previous death.

MPs from the ruling coalition of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, convoked an extraordinary session of parliament to discuss the death of opposition activist Astrit Dehari - having earlier refused to discuss the matter on the grounds that they were awaiting the official forensic report.

Kosovo civil society activists have called another protest on Thursday in Pristina's main Skenderbeg Square over the death of Vetevendosje activist Astrit Dehari who died early in November in a jail in Prizren.

The rallty is supported by thousands of social media users using the hashtag #JusticeForAstrit or Albanian #DrejtesiPerAstritin.

According to the chief prosecutor of the western Kosovo town of Prizren, Syle Hoxha, 17 people were interviewed during the investigation, four of whom were interviewed twice.

"All the evidence and examinations carried out during the investigation show that this case was a suicide," Hoxha told a press conference on Friday.